Year: 2006

GAO Cites Defense Dept. for Poor Oversight in Iraq – Again!

Buck Banks

Contractor con men: The Government Accountability Office has issued a report that chastizes the Pentagon for failing to provide adequate oversight of private contractors supporting American military operations in Iraq.

The report cites a shortage of front-line managers overseeing contractor support that has led to a lack of accountability or assurance that the military is getting the services it has paid for. Before he “retired,” Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had assured the GAO that the military would comply with recommendations made in earlier GAO reports. He must have had his fingers crossed at the time.

It appears the Pentagon has basically outsourced the war in Iraq:

The military’s global war on terror has coincided with a massive outsourcing of jobs traditionally performed by uniformed personnel. In Iraq and Afghanistan, hundreds of private companies provide battlefield support to the troops, supplying them with everything from food and housing to Internet service and intelligence analysis.

While 9,200 contractors supported the 1991 Gulf War, the Army alone estimates that at least 60,000 contractors support combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to the new report (GAO-07-145).

The Pentagon does not know how many contractors currently are working in Iraq and living on the American bases that have sprung up around the country, GAO noted.

Besides getting bad service, the result is millions of dollars lost each year through waste and abuse. For instance, the Army estimates that $43 million is lost annually due to contractors eating free meals while receiving a per diem allowance for food. Hey,that sounds like good work if you can get it.

[…]

Jeb Bush: “I Have No Future”

Trish

At last, a reason to thank George W. Bush! The shame and disgrace he has brought upon the fine Bush name might keep Jeb from running for president.

At least that’s what Mr. Crybaby Snitty-Snear is saying.

“No tengo futuro,” Jeb Bush told Spanish-language reporters in Miami

The shadow of President Bush seemed to loom large over his younger brother on Wednesday, as the outgoing Florida governor ruled out any plans to return to elected office.

“No tengo futuro (I have no future),” Jeb Bush told Spanish-language reporters in Miami, when asked about any possible political ambitions after he steps down next month.

…the unpopularity and dismal job-approval ratings of his brother may have scuttled any plans Jeb Bush may have had for a future in politics after running one of America’s most crucial swing states for the past eight years.Bush did not elaborate on his terse “no future” comment.

Has Jeb ever made a comment that wasn’t terse?

Anyway, it’s just so sad when the name that was your free pass to success in life is turned into a liability by your half-wit big brother. So. Very. Sad. Just ask GOP lackey Sam Brownback.

“Jeb would have made an outstanding presidential candidate,” said Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback…

In a backhanded slap at President Bush, Brownback cited “a heritage issue” as one factor currently weighing against a Jeb Bush presidency.

“People may be wanting to see a different name,” he said.

Ya think?

Live Animals Eaten to Show Iraqi Machismo

Trish

As new Secretary of Defense Bob Gates visited Baghdad, a commemoration was held in Najaf province to mark the turnover of control from U.S. troops to Iraqis. To illustrate the potency of the new law enforcers, animals were eaten live. Yes, frogs and bunnies were ripped apart live and munched.

Chewing on live animals is a traditional display of ferocity for elite troops in Iraq and was also observed by special units during Saddam Hussein’s rule.

About 1,500 police officers, soldiers and security personnel staged a parade around an infield of stubby brown grass, in festivities complete with warriors on horseback.

At one point, a small group of soldiers stepped forward with a live rabbit and tore it to pieces. The leader bit out the heart with a yell, then passed around the blood-soaked remains to his comrades, each of whom took a bite. The group also bit the heads off frogs, as some of those in the crowd held their noses from the stench.

Chewing on live animals is a traditional display of ferocity for elite troops in Iraq and was also observed by special units during Saddam Hussein’s rule.

Police then steered shiny new cruisers and motorcycles with ribbons and flowers stuck to their windshields around a track ringing the soccer field, which was still littered with fur and discarded frog legs.

“Our soldiers do a lot of things, but I’ve never seen them do anything like that,” said Maj. Gen. Kurt Cichowski, who attended the ceremony.

Our troops do indeed do a lot of things. Charges will be filed today against eight Marines accused of murdering 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha in November, 2005.

Good Lord. What are we doing in this place?

Quote du Jour

Buck Banks

The Holocaust never quite leaves Israeli Jews alone. Arabs use it against them and they use it against Arabs. Jews use it against other Jews. Even the president of the United States, it seems, can use it against the prime minister of Israel.

— David K. Shipler, from Arab and Jew: Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land

GOP Radio Host: Send Critics of Dear Leader Bush to Detention Camps

Jon Ponder
“I think we should round up all of these folks. Round up Joy Behar, round up Matt Damon, who last night on MSNBC attacked George Bush and Dick Cheney. Round up Olbermann, take the whole bunch of them and put them in a detention camp until this war is over because they’re a bunch of traitors.”
— GOP mouthpiece Mike Gallagher

The black soul of Republican authoritarianism was in full voice on Bill Hemmer’s show on Fox News this week. Rightwing radio talk show host Mike Gallagher made his case for rounding up liberals like Joy Behar, Matt Damon and Keith Olbermann and sending them to concentration camps:

Bill Hemmer: They talk about Godwins Law, internet junkies, as discussions grow longer someone makes a comparison to Hitler and that person loses the argument. The view, Joy Behar weighing in on the Times Person of the Year.

Video Clip of Joy Behar: “I don’t think anyone cares anymore about Time Magazines Person of the Year. You have to put like a Hitler type, like you put Donald Rumsfeld there or something.”

Onscreen is a picture of Hitler and Donald Rumsfeld side by side and the words ‘The View from the Left?’

Bill Hemmer: Rob, can you defend that?

Rob Thompson: Who can? Godwins Law stands true in all instances. Nobody believes he’s like Hitler, c’mon.

BH: I like Joy Behar. I think she’s smart. I think she’s funny but this is a bit unexcusable, Mike?

RT: Now, if she’d have said something like Rumsfeld alone or Rumsfeld is a lot like Bob MacNamera, we’ll put him on the cover of Time Magazine.

Mike Gallagher: You know it’s a little bit ridiculous that we continue to watch these TV stars and movie stars who smear our leaders. I just wonder, Rob, if you’ll think for a moment what our enemies think … of seeing TV personalities comparing the outgoing Defense Secretary to Adolph Hitler.

[…]

On This Date – December 21

Jon Ponder

1970 – Elvis is in the building: On December 21, 1970, Elvis Presley paid a visit to President Richard M. Nixon at the White House in Washington, D.C. The meeting was initiated by Presley, who wrote Nixon a six-page letter requesting a visit with the President and suggesting that he be made a “Federal Agent-at-Large” in the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs. The events leading up to and after the meeting are detailed in the documentation and photographs included here, which include Presley’s handwritten letter, memoranda from Nixon staff and aides, and the thank-you note from Nixon for the gifts (including a Colt 45 pistol and family photos) that Presley brought with him to the Oval Office. [GWU]

Have a Very Merry Mithras

Jon Ponder

Mithras was a god whose mythology originated in Greece in the 2nd century B.C. and spread to Rome 100 years later. As gods’ bios go, the story of Mithras has a familiar ring:

  • Mithras was born of a virgin on December 25th in a cave, and his birth was attended by shepherds.
  • He was considered a great traveling teacher and master.
  • He had 12 companions or disciples.
  • Mithras’ followers were promised immortality.
  • He performed miracles.
  • As the “great bull of the Sun,” Mithras sacrificed himself for world peace.
  • He was buried in a tomb and after three days rose again.
  • His resurrection was celebrated every year.
  • He was called “the Good Shepherd” and identified with both the Lamb and the Lion.
  • He was considered the “Way, the Truth and the Light,” and the “Logos,” “Redeemer,” “Savior” and “Messiah.”
  • His sacred day was Sunday.
  • Mithras had his principal festival of what was later to become Easter.
  • His religion had a eucharist or “Lord’s Supper,” at which Mithras said, “He who shall not eat of my body nor drink of my blood so that he may be one with me and I with him, shall not be saved.”

Mithras ascended into heaven at the age of 64, in 208 B.C.

Gingrich Lashes Out at Bush and Rove – Won’t Run in ’08 Out of Fear of Hillary

Jon Ponder
Gingrich may be averse to running against Hillary Clinton because, as speaker, he persecuted her husband over an extramarital affair while he, Gingrich, was having an affair with a staff member.

You probably thought Newt Gingrich never had an unexpressed thought, but sources close to the GOP Big Thinker say he’s been biting his tongue for months about the incompetence of Bush and Rove. Well, no more. Rightwing Moonie rag WashTimes (edited by Gingrich’s former staffer, Tony Blankley) has him dishing on the Mayberry Machiavellis like they were Dems:

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has decided to break with President Bush.

Sources close to Mr. Gingrich said that, after having kept silent for more than a year, he has become openly critical of the administration, portraying the president as a weak man akin to Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter.

As Newt surely knows, Gerald Ford is in failing health right now, so what better time to trash him. And comparing George W. Bush to a decent, highly intelligent humanitarian like Jimmy Carter is obscene. Neither Newt nor Dubya are worthy of shining his shoes.

There is not a dime’s bit of ideological difference between Newt Gingrich and his fellow travelers, Bush and Rove. If the GOP had kept control of Congress last month, he’d still be their BFF. Instead, he’s kicking them while they’re down:

“Newt bit his tongue for months and now feels he has to tell his base the truth: the White House does not have the will or the power to promote any agenda,” a source close to Mr. Gingrich said.

The sources said Mr. Gingrich … blames White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove for Mr. Bush’s mistakes, including the loss of Congress in 2006. They said Mr. Gingrich’s criticism of the top Bush political adviser has been considered by the president and this could lead to Mr. Rove’s early departure.

On Nov. 30, Mr. Gingrich … spoke at a private fund raiser for the Virginia Conservative Action PAC. Mr. Gingrich, lamenting the waste of the Republican Party’s huge ad campaign during the 2006 election, called on Mr. Rove to either change his losing strategy or quit.

“2004 was pathetic, and 2006 was worse,” Mr. Gingrich said, referring to the Rove-directed GOP campaigns.

The same sources say that Gingrich is leaning toward running for president in 2012, rather than in 2008, because he is terrified of running against Sen. Hillary Clinton. He may be averse to running against her because, as speaker, he persecuted her husband over an extramarital affair while he, Gingrich, was having an affair with a staff member.

Quote du Jour

Buck Banks

… had I so interfered in behalf of the rich, the powerful, the intelligent, the so-called great, or in behalf of their children, or any of that class, and suffered and sacrificed what I have in this interference, it would have been all right, and every man in this court would have deemed it an act worthy of reward rather than punishment.

— John Brown (1800-hanged 1859), American abolitionist

SMU Faculty Voices Objections to Being Site of Bush $500 Mil ‘Lie-berry’

Jon Ponder

The plans for this library are a sure sign that after Bush has completed his term as the Worst President Ever, he’ll spend the rest of his life being the Worst Ex-President Ever.

You can’t blame the faculty and staff of Southern Methodist University in Texas for objecting to Pres. Bush’s plan to put his $500 million library, or “lie-berry,” as he might put it on their campus. After all, who wants to be the home of the laughingstock of presidential museums.

Texas Monthly magazine got a copy of a letter sent from the a faculty group to the university’s board of trustees in which they expressed some of their concerns:

“We count ourselves among those who would regret to see SMU enshrine attitudes and actions widely deemed as ethically egregious: degradation of habeas corpus, outright denial of global warming, flagrant disregard for international treaties, alienation of long-term U.S. allies, environmental predation, shameful disrespect for gay persons and their rights, a pre-emptive war based on false and misleading premises, and a host of other erosions of respect for the global human community and for this good Earth on which our flourishing depends.”

“[T]hese violations are antithetical to the teaching, scholarship, and ethical thinking that best represents Southern Methodist University.”

These are excellent points but the reason given by the faculty members that has real resonance is that the library’s real purpose is to rewrite the history of Bush’s term in office:

Their concerns are based on a New York Daily News story of November 27, which describes the future library as a $500 million center (the costliest presidential library ever), the purpose of which would be “to spread the gospel of a presidency that for now gets poor marks from many scholars and a majority of Americans.”

The letter to Turner makes the point that there are “two fundamentally different visions of the Library”: a neutral space for unbiased academic research conducted by scholars, or a conservative think tank and policy institute that engages in legacy polishing and grooms young conservatives for public office.

The concept of a George W. Bush library is a joke, or rather, I wish it were. It is a sure sign that after Bush has completed his term as the Worst President Ever, he’ll spend the rest of his life being the Worst Ex-President Ever.